Goodooga, northwest NSW, 5 April 2012 – A northwest NSW tribal leader is calling on Aboriginal people across the country to march on Anzac Day in commemoration of frontier wars perpetrated by British invaders and “the ongoing war of attrition against Aboriginal Peoples”.
Michael (Ghillar) Anderson, leader of the Euahlayi, writes in a media release: “Last year we started Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars by joining on behind the Anzac Day march in Canberra and we received enormous support from the public at this time. Now we need to keep it going.” (See http://vimeo.com/user1605040/lest-we-forget-the-frontier-wars).
“All the Aboriginal diggers marching around the country on Anzac Day can also remember the Kalkadoon wars, Pinjara massacre, the Wiradjuri wars, Myall Creek, just to name a few. We have commenced a process to highlight the wars fought on Australian soil since 1788, when our country was taken by superior force, at gunpoint, and those who stood in the way were shot.
“What we need to do now is to keep identifying that there has been warfare; that blood has been spilt on the wattle; and there is an ongoing war of attrition against Aboriginal Peoples to this day.
“We all have had family who have participated in one war or another in the modern era, so it shows our own people are prepared to defend this country, even offshore to ward off any attempts to invade our country, or threaten our future generations,” Anderson, the last survivor of the four young men who in 1972 set up the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra, writes.
“The oppression that Aboriginal Peoples are subjected to is now being internalised by our youth, many of whom don’t see a future as Aboriginal people but they don’t want to assimilate, so they pay the ultimate price in the protest, by taking their own lives – ‘turning off the sun’.”
His statement in full:
Last year we started Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars by joining on behind the Anzac Day march in Canberra and we received enormous support from the public at this time. Now we need to keep it going.
(See http://vimeo.com/user1605040/lest-we-forget-the-frontier-wars)
We have commenced a process to highlight the wars fought on Australian soil since 1788, when our country was taken by superior force, at gunpoint, and those who stood in the way were shot.
What we need to do now is to keep identifying that there has been warfare; that blood has been spilt on the wattle; and there is an ongoing war of attrition against Aboriginal Peoples to this day.
Our people are dying in custody for crimes white people don’t usually go to jail for, minor driving offences.
The 2012 Nyoongar Embassy on Heirisson Island, Perth, WA, is a classic example, where the authorities are using superior force for no reason at all, but to intimidate the occupants and suppress them, so they leave, even though the Embassy site was carefully chosen as ‘Crown land’ under the colonial system of land tenure.
We are subject to continued war of attrition, including urban warfare. That’s what’s occurring here in this country.
To march on Anzac Day and identify all this present aggression and past aggression, like we did last year, is an absolute imperative for us as no-one is going to know what is going on unless we put it out there.
We all have had family who have participated in one war or another in the modern era, so it shows our own people are prepared to defend this country, even offshore to ward off any attempts to invade our country, or threaten our future generations.
All the Aboriginal diggers marching around the country on Anzac Day can also remember the Kalkadoon wars, Pinjara massacre, the Wiradjuri wars, Myall Creek, just to name a few. In 1788 Governor Phillip came here ‘under the rules and disciplines of war’ and in 1836 Britain concluded a Select Committee inquiry into their military operations against Aboriginal Peoples.
We cannot forget this, because too many of our people lost their lives in defence of their country and people’s lives continue to be lost.
There is a lack of the authority of leadership in this country that speaks to the real issues. Now we have a proposed Constitutional reform process that says the Aboriginal Sovereignty is too hard to deal with, let’s forget about it! We don’t need that patronising leadership, but instead we need forthright leadership that asserts our rights so that we take our rightful place in society.
The oppression that Aboriginal Peoples are subjected to is now being internalised by our youth, many of whom don’t see a future as Aboriginal people but they don’t want to assimilate, so they pay the ultimate price in the protest, by taking their own lives – ‘turning off the sun’.
The so-called ‘Closing the Gap’ through Basic cards and a dictatorship about how we should conduct our lives and live is social engineering at its best and genocidal in its intent, through assimilation.
This is why we should march independently on Anzac day to identify this war that we have suffered and continue to suffer. Joining the Anzac march is NOT a protest. It is a remembering of the wars and the losses of those who suffered.
If Australians can remember those who have fallen in defence of our country offshore, then they must accept the silent war that strikes on the mainland today and the losses that result from that and this is something we will not forget.
Those interested in joining us can gather at the lower end of Anzac Parade, Canberra, at 10am for the 11am march on 25th April 2012 and carry a banner for one of the wars or massacres that have occurred – please come and join us.
Mick Thorpe who led the 2011 Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars march in 2011 wore his grandfather’s medals and this year wants the Gippsland massacres, led by Angus McMillan, remembered.
Squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:
The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether.[2]
For those who cannot come to Canberra on Anzac Day, take the initiative and do the same in your local area, then send us your report back to the Sovereign Union: media@nationalunitygovernment.org
Lest We Forget the Frontier Wars: Re Imagining Anzac
by Eleanor Gilbert -- Last year on Anzac Eve a vigil for peace, carrying paper lanterns, descends Mt Ainslie on which the Australian War Memorial stands in Canberra. The following day, ANZAC Day 2011, Michael Anderson leads the inaugral march remembering Aboriginal Nations and Peoples who defended Country against the invading forces from Europe. Bearing signs respecting wars of resistance and massacres a diverse group respectfully falls in behind the Anzac Day march. Emotions rise as the crowd claps openly for the courageous group, but at the end of the parade their progress is blocked by police, demonstrating that Australia is yet to attain a maturity.
Contact: Michael Anderson, at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond.com.au, ghillar29@gmail.com
More releases by Anderson at Treaty Republic.
Comments
Ambivalent about celebration or commemoration of Anzac Day
by ray jackson
i must admit to a proven ambivalence towards anzac day and the celebration or commemoration of that day.
like all school children of my vintage we were taught that anzac day was nothing less than sacred when our brave soldiers, sailors and airmen saved us from the japanese peril and the fascism of hitler. of course there was absolutely no mention of any aborigines or torres strait islanders who fought and no recognition of women either. this war was men's business - white men's business. the business of our bronzed anzacs, our diggers whose bravery matched that of our grandfathers who fought and died in ww1. as children we basked in the heroic light of our men who had fought and those that made it home and those that didn't.
simpson and his donkey who tended to the wounded at gallipoli was a role model par excellence. the victory of defeat at gallipoli was hard to understand but we accepted what we were told. we learnt of the total heroism of those who fought in papua-new guinea and especially the hell that was the kokoda track. my adopted mother's 3 brothers all returned from the war but never spoke of their actions of bravery and heroism. i could not understand that but then i thought as a child and continued not understanding.
i attended the anzac day marches in the city and later, when i was older, i attended the hotels as well. lots of words tumbled from many lips, some about their part in the war until they were hushed up by their less emotionally-charged comrades at arms. the main words uttered revolved around interpretations of 'never again.' i continued to grow, to read and to learn.
during my time working in papua-new guinea i attended the 'gunfire breakfasts' and visited bomana war cemetery. at dawn, my memory tells me, bomana was indeed a beautiful place to be. row after row of white headstones that glinted like broken glass in the early morning light. my only sorrow is that many years later, after i had returned to australia, i was told that my birth-father had been buried there. i always vowed to go back but never did. i also visited the start of the track at owens corner and walked some distance down the track.
i go into this detail merely to show that the war was on my radar perhaps more than most. my readings and learnings continued to the point that i stopped going to the marches. i questioned the meaning of the marches and found that whilst honouring those who had gone to war and those who had died, i could no longer accept the politics of war and wondered why those who did could not see through the futility of war.
previously i have stated that looking at the wars we have fought for king/queen and country and the flag, that starting with the boer war and going to our invasion of afghanistan, aborigines have fought in every one of them. in the boer war up to 7 aborigines were taken to sth africa as trackers and labourers. whether they wanted to go or agreed to go is a moot point. when the fighting was over the troops came home but they left the aborigines there. they died in south africa is my understanding.
ww1 was nothing less than a european imperialist war of squabbling royal houses for alleged sleights and land. we should have never been involved. ww2 was quite different. this was a fascist war and as such needed to be fought and won. and thankfully we were part of the winning team that did. after the end of that war we then became involved in what was termed the malaysian emergency when britain attempted to re-rule malaysia again. korea, an american-supported war, then followed and it was my task in school every thursday to compile the war news, abbreviate it and read it to the class. but we should not have been there. years later i was to meet and socialise with some very scarred veterans who had fought. they did talk but the cry was the same, 'never again.' then came our limited involvement in what was termed the indonesian-malaysian confrontation. vietnam tore our country to pieces as we once again followed the usa into war. it was prime minister bob menzies telling lies at the behest of the usa that got us into that hell-hole. wrongly, some attacked the conscripts and regulars who went to vietnam but their bile should only have been the politicians who tricked our young fighters into vietnam. then came the criminal invasions of iraq and afghanistan.
we have either supported british hegemony or american hegemony, except for ww2 and it is time that we stood on our own feet but with indonesia and china above us with their many hundreds of millions, some of them of the muslim faith, we will remain cowering in wasp-ish fear and continue seeking a strong protector. now it is america but they are on the downward slide so the future is indeed interesting.
since the rev. ray minnicon and others around redfern began the black digger march some years ago my interest has been piqued to the point that i want to attend that march rather than the mainstream city march. i still honour those who fight and those who die but the day has been turned into a nationalistic feast of rhetoric and bravado whereby war is glorified as a cause worthy of support. generations on we now stand at anzac cove marvelling at the heroism of our fighting men and the histrionics of the politicians who join them in this worthy endeavour of remembering a war by those who have never fought.
Gallipoli was a disaster, a butchery of defeat led by incompetent english officers. the same butchers who then offered for massacre those in the trenches of france and elsewhere. the only possible glory arising from the stupidity and callousness of war is the survivors whispering, 'never again.'
but i also wish to march this anzac day for those who fought and died in the invasion that began in 1788. for all the massacres of my people and the outcomes of that invasion that still attacks and kills my people today. i will march for all those aborigines and torres strait islanders who fought and died fighting for equality and justice but sadly found none. i will march for those who died in all the wars and who still do not get their proper respect and deserved attention and thanks.
and i will also march for my australian birth-father who is buried at bomana war cemetery in papua.
but i do not march to glorify war.
never again.
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
www.isja.org.au
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice
Can the Indigenous people left in South Africa be traced?
By Trudy
Very well written, Ray. Two things occurred to me. The first is that I saw the Vietnam war from a different perspective. I was in Canada at the time. The conscripts were pouring across the border and Canada took them in as did Sweden. These people gave up their partners in many cases and their parents with no guarantee that they ever would see either again. These were thoughtful people mostly and had arrived at this difficult decision because they thought the war was wrong and they made huge sacrifices in order not to make it worse. They loved their country BUT.......good conscience would not let them.
I found a book in a second hand store in Toronto. It was called "The Invisible Government" and it exposed what the USA was doing in Vietnam and how they engineered the war and sold it overseas. The CIA had been very busy and also had bought up every copy of that book....but not quite.
My brother had meanwhile been called up in Australia so I sent him the book. It was just another nail. He was not going. If you knew my brother.....he couldn't hurt anything and even refused to play footy in high school. It took him a year of court appearances to be told he could do office work instead but he wouldn't do that either. Meanwhile his friend the law student who had been helping him was called up himself and refused to go but it meant my brother had to fight on alone. He was not affiliated to any religion so that made it really hard to convince the judge of his conscience. He won in the end - after two years.
The reason many people attacked conscripts is because they chose to obey and go fight an illegal war of aggression or because they did not have the conscience to refuse to kill. It was more a case of 'you could have said no'. I don't know how it was in Australia but in the US and Canada (some Canadians volunteered) it was more a case of ignoring the people who came back. I think they were expecting to be greeted like other soldiers in other wars but they weren't and they complained. That's when they were attacked - mostly verbally but not always. Not for their heroism but for their lack of it.
The second thing is can the Indigenous people who were left in Sth Africa be traced? Has it been attempted? Most people don't know about this and I think it should be widely disseminated. It has been playing on my mind ever since I learnt of it.
Struggle for resources to prop the savage kingdom of capitalism
By Ray Jackson
Trudy some in australia did refuse trudy but nothing like the numbers in america who had started the war anyway.
we have always had conscientious objectors but their stories were, if not
expunged from history, at least vastly silenced in the main. the ww1
conscription battles are well known but the arguments were more muted this
time round as we were fighting against communism to save capitalism and
australia was very much a politically backward country still very much
managed on a social diet of ignorance and fear. an expanded and expanding
middle-class who absolutely believed that they needed to side with the
establishment, even at the cost of their own sons. and their daughters as
nurses as in previous wars.
it was those under 30 that swarmed the moratoriums, those who had been
reborn in the 60's but it still took until whitlam in 1972 to bring the
rest of the troops home and to exonerate those who refused to participate
in a bad bad war. we, the people, they said had been vindicated in our
words and actions and we were not in any mood to be generous or forgiving
to those who returned. after all, we the people, had won the right to be
right! and being right trumps everything else, doesn't it?
some years ago i read an article that asked the serious question as to
what had caused the most moral and mental damage to our vietnam vets. our
numbers in vietnam were relatively small when compared to others but large
by national population numbers when measured against other countries
including aotearoa. world-wide, or at least in the participating countries
that the usa had been able to twist their arms, had all suffered the same
level of trauma and vilification. the involvement of the uk cannot be
counted as they got out very early in the game.
our grand-fathers and fathers had been enthused over decades that the
king/queen/flag ethos was the only way to go. especially when even our
defeats, such as gallipoli, were nationally lauded as being the true birth
of this country. of course it wasn't but that male military 'boys own'
ethic that we could only be born as a nation in the crucible of war was
pushed by the politicians and the media, and even some churches, and
mainly by those who had never fought in a war.
i agree trudy that all the returning vietnam soldiers mainly walked into a
social volley of vituperation but i thought then, as i do now, that such
ignorant abuse was just so wrong. those who became involved in such
cowardly attacks, as i have said above, were practicing and pumping-up
their own feelings of righteousness in their political battle against the
vietnam war and, in a sense, winning it. their political consciousness of
the politics of war was generally below zero as they basked in their
self-appointed self-worth. these people were not called up to participate
in the 'lottery of death' as it was called. a great majority were at the
universities and did not want their education stalled. they most certainly
had never been to war and apart from the odd john wayne movie that showed
that the usa had never been in a war that they lost, they knew nothing of
war in general. they did however know more about vietnam as it was our
first televised war. even in black and white the war was horrendous. for
example, the shooting of an alleged communist soldier/sympathiser who was
executed as a matter of practiced ease it seems by a south vietnamese
police chief proved to the demonstrators that they were on the side of
right.
the political assassinations and machinations of 'democratically elected'
south korean presidents by usa politics became common place. my lai became
another problem among so very many others. if people do not understand
that during wars even our forces committed crimes of varying magnitude
then they do not want to know that war is hell and it does affect actions
that would not be tolerated elsewhere and in another place. so would have
the forces of the other participants but we hear only the war crimes and
atrocities of the losers, never, or rarely anyway, that of the winners. i
have no doubt that the televising of the vietnam war worked against the
usa and its allies and for the forces of the greater majority of the
vietnamese people and i agreed with the outcome then as now.
we must never abuse the victims. australian society has a history of doing
just that. to my people for the last 200- odd years and the most current
example of hate-crime abuse would have to be the vilification of the
asylum seekers, but that's another story. these young men and women who
went to vietnam, some with great misgivings no doubt, nonetheless served
their country well. yes it was a bloody bad war but as i have said
previously we have fought in other bad wars before and our fighting men
and women were received back home as heroes. even today our forces in iraq
and afghanistan, both undeniably bad wars, will not suffer the crass
indignities put against the vietnam vets.
and why is this so? i hear the old professor asking. many reasons can be
listed for this cruelty that became a national, even an international,
sport. vietnam was no korea. yes the enemy was said to be the same but we
only had the press and radio to guide us during korea and, as we know,
nothing fades quicker than what we read and hear in a media that
continually urged our loyalty ever onwards, this time to the usa. no war
here had become so in your face as vietnam with the introduction of black
and white television in september, 1956. just in time for the melbourne
olympics. as i stated above, the televising of the vietnam war changed the
rules of perception as we could actually see what was happening. no amount
of censorship or white-washing was enough to stop the horrible truth from
lapping at our conscience and our consciousness.
our youth were better educated by their attendance at universities, but
not on all things, but the 60's had woken them up to the people power of
protest and protest they did. unionists, workers, students, mothers, in
their tens of thousands knew that it was a bad war and wanted the forces
home but surely not to castigate and cause them more pain? surely not for
that reason? in the protestors thoughts one would have hoped for some
compassion but that was not to be. even that great glorifier of war, along
with the ilk of bruce ruxton, turned their face away by arguing that
vietnam was not a real war like ww1 and ww2 had been and so these forces
would not be welcomed at the rsl's. this was grossly insulting but was
merely another turn of the knife in their collective belly. and anyhow
those wars were called imperial wars to save the mother country! in my
opinion, those who fought in vietnam carried with them the bravery of
their fathers and grandfathers along with their names and hence their
memories.
the protestors cry that they were cowards for not refusing to fight was,
to me, an oxymoron. for young men in this country over the decades, even
at school, we were inculcated with that manly war-cry, only sissies are
cowards and to be identified as such would bring much shame upon the
family. the shame factor played for the unmarried mothers also. now of
course things have changed. men can now cry but not sob or weep, that is
still a girl thing. but i believe that there are still millions of
fathers, and some mothers, who urge their sons to stand up to the bully
and become a real man. one to bring pride to the family. cowards don't
fight when it comes time to do so and i do not believe that masculine
understanding has changed all that much.
some of course took on the political war rather than the vietnam one and
finished up at long bay gaol or in hiding. was that any easier, in
essence, than those who accepted their fate and went to war? war is hell
but so is not being free. like soldiers everywhere and from every
generation, there is the expectation that because they are seen to be on
the side of right then the war will be over in a matter of weeks or
months. of course that was never the case and i doubt it ever will be. but
all of those who would have harboured the one long hope that they would
return home alive. not to be counted as heroes, i suspect, but at least
honoured for putting their life on the line. the wrongs and rights never
came into it. some would have known that it was a bad war but they went
anyway as so many others before them. call it foolish, call it the power
of camaraderie, call it whatever you will, they still went.
the armed forces and the police are expected to be apolitical by the
politicians who are their masters. when gough whitlam was hoisted out of
office in 1975 it is a known fact that had those outside parliament
attempted to take action to re-instate gough they would have faced the
army and the federal police, who were already on standby and who would
have been ordered to shoot. don't believe me, then consider every other
coup that the cia were in control of. the establishment would use their
forces against the people to save their power. that, my friend, is the way
of the world. but they did not have to as then actu head, and future prime
minister, bob hawke, told the workers to 'cool it.' we did and the rest is
history.
the vietnam war was, in my opinion, the first war to use psychology as a
weapon of war and it proved to be very successful. your friend, your mate
during the day became your enemy at night with a mission to kill you.
previous wars had been against a visible and known enemy but in vietnam
the whole population, with some exceptions, was your enemy. the man who
served you drinks in the girl bars would happily destroy you if he could.
the women and young boys and girls you used would also happily kill you.
this style of war was total bloody war on a 24 hour a day basis. on this
scale this had never happened before. you could trust nobody but your
mates there with you. and yes, as in gaols, as in korea, as in all wars,
love was shared with your mates when it became necessary. that's war mate.
it is not homosexuality, it is nothing more than being human and needing
love.
i was never in favour of sending our forces, or anybody else's for that
matter, to vietnam. to that i will add iraq and afghanistan. and also iran
when isreal and america decide to do so. but our politicians will send
troops because we must appease not our non-existent enemies but our very
much existent friend. that will be another bad war but it is not up to the
individual forces to say no, we are not going, we are not going to fight.
it is up to the people of this country, in fact all countries, to tell the
politicians no, you will not send our men and women, our brave sons and
daughters to fight. we forbid you. i can only hope that that day is coming
ever closer.
trudy, i hated the vietnam war and its criminal aftermath by the callous
and criminal war crime of the usa and their allies refusing to pay proper
reparations to the vietnamese and specifically those affected by the
poison, agent orange. and i hate the war criminal politicians everywhere,
but the usa politicians especially, for their war mongering politics that
send the willing and the unwilling to fight for their causes. war has
returned to the politics of ww1, nothing more than the struggle for
resources the better to prop up the savage kingdom of capitalism that is
america. and the lap dogs that follow them.
but i will not hate or despise those poor fools who go to a war our
government said they must. they, perhaps, had no higher calling than the
protestors who shouted them down and then preached to them their so-called
moral majority. are they now the parents or grandparents who proudly
express their pride at the bravery of their sons and grandsons who fought
in iraq and still fight in afghanistan in the unwinnable war on terror? i
hope so as it just may prick their conscience for another war at another
time and those who also fought as bravely on the battle field, much more
bravely than the cowardly politicians who put them there.
probably for the same reason that my birth-father went to war. because it
seemed to be a good idea at the time.
fkj
ps, i haven't forgotten the brothers in the boer war but that must need to
wait. i also forgot to add that australians were involved in the maori wars
for the promise of stolen lands and in the sudan supporting britain
against the mahdi. this country was built on war and they just kept going.
no black fellers there though. thanks paul.
Re Menzies, by George Venturini
Menzies was greatly impressed with much of what he saw when he and his wife toured Nazi Germany in 1938.
After the Munich Agreement of 29 September 1938, which began the dismembering of Czechoslovakia, Menzies returned to Australia. On 6 November 1938 he told a Presbyterian church audience that a government “founded on licence would destroy itself”, and went on to call for more “national powers” to help the development of a “national spirit.”
A fortnight earlier he had told a Melbourne audience that “There is a good deal of really spiritual quality in the willingness of young Germans to devote themselves to the service and well-being of the State.”, and that the enthusiasm for service to the State evident in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany “could be well emulated in Australia.”Writing home he would notice that “..., it must be said that this modern abandonment by the Germans of individual liberty and of the easy and pleasant things of life has something rather magnificent about it.”
Even coming from a man owned and operated by the Bank of New South Wales this was breathtaking! But, inspired by racism? Noooh! But, if the doubt persists, ask the Irish. They well remember what he said of them.
Ten years later, Menzies would begin the longest prime ministership in the history of Australia, infused with hatred for the ‘yellow race’ – which was supposed to come down and invade the continent. He poisoned an ignorant and indifferent populace with the disease of the most yobbish anti-Communism – which translated into anti-unionism.
Because of his own insufficiency he regaled the country with a slavish monarchism – which was expressed in the most servile and demeaning forms. A lawyer of some fame and a pretentious cultivator of civility – of the ‘British’ style, of course – he told the Australians and the world that apartheid in South Africa was an ‘internal matter’; therefore should be of no interest to Australia.
Menzies attempted effectively to interfere with the invasion of Egypt to retain the Suez canal in ‘the proper hands’ – which obviously meant the hands of the Franco-English company.
Before retiring he involved Australian boys in a war in Indochina predicated on a lie – which could never be disproved because the alleged ‘invitation’ was never found.
For mental laziness, emotional dependence and sheer reaction Menzies – the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports - five port towns on the southeast coast of England which had strategic importance in Roman times! – offered Australians the comfort of living in some kind of kingdom of nothingness.
In December 1949 – as Professor Manning Clark wrote – when one was witnessing “one third of the population of the world ... marching forwards, [Australians] choose to stand still.” Clark found it even more depressing that “in December 1975 [at the shafting of the Whitlam redemption, Australians] showed the world that [they] did not mind if someone turned the clock back. We were still a nation of petty-bourgeois property owners, who thought it was prudent to prefer men with the values and skills of receivers to visionaries and reformers to govern our country. We had the values of the counting house; we were interest rate men; we thought quality of life should pull their head in.”
Insanity, inhumanity and rank stupidity of male privilege
It's just so easy to write women out of history, the refuge of the embittered misogynist, but it was the surge in women's empowerment after male privilege brought life on Earth as we know it to the brink of extinction with the prospect of a nuclear winter during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, that led to the backlash against the perpetrators and participants of the Vietnam war, an influence which over the next few decades will eliminate war altogether. Anzac Day is a day of remembrance of the insanity, inhumanity and rank stupidity of male privilege, and will always be commemorated as such, imho.
philip
All these women, including Gillard, and many more went to war
Philip, tell us what you know about Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland Islands? Tell us what you know about Benazir Bhutto?or Mbande Nzinga Angolan Queen?Or Catherine the Great Empress of Russia?Or Golda Meir Prime Minister of Israel?,Or Indira Gandhi Prime Minister of India? Or Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I?Or Isabella I of Castile Queen of Spain?Or Joan of Arc Leader of the French Army?Or Cleopatra Queen of Egypt?Or Queen Tamara of Georgia?Or Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina?all these women and many more went to war and lets not forget Julia Gillard who still has our troops at war today!
Philip what are you talking about?
All obtained consent of office from a majority of men
Women's legislatures for starters Eddie. All the women you cite obtained consent of office from a majority of men, including Julia Gillard. Australia's board of directors, the Cabinet, is comprised of seventeen men and a paltry five women, blatant sexist discrimination. You want incessant warfare or peace and sustainable prosperity in perpetuity? Anzac day is all about remembrance of rank male stupidity.
Bull shit Phillip have another look at the list
Bull shit Phillip have another look at the list
Male privilege is now being dismantled
Ok Eddie, let's look at your first example, Margaret Thatcher, for instance, in the context of your assertion that because one women led a nation to war, a majority of women are predisposed to resolving conflict through warfare, as the long history of male majority leadership resolving conflict through warfare indicates is a male predisposition.
During the English summer of 1975 I was living homeless in London selling crayon drawings on card on the streets of Soho to earn a feed. Best free show in town was Parliament so I went along to the House of Commons and gained entry to the public gallery. I took a seat and commenced sketching, whereupon an attendant tapped me on the shoulder and informed me of a prohibition on the public recording proceedings, including my artwork, so I took further pause to analyse the chamber. It was a full session. In front of me to my left sat three hundred or so, mostly men in brown lounge suits, the Labour Party, at the time in government, with Harold Wilson seated front and centre. To my right sat three hundred or so, mostly men in dark business suits, a solid block of shady hue. Front and centre was Margaret Thatcher, a few short years from becoming Prime Minister. In no democratic sense whatsoever did Mrs Thatcher represent a women's voice.
Eddie, Margaret Thatcher achieved leadership entirely at the behest of a huge majority of men, as did every other woman you inferred represents a generic women's voice. Many ruled when the law considered most women were the property of men, such is the nonsense of your assertion. They did what men expected them to do and if they didn't they were finished. You call this women's predisposition?
Forward a few decades and a global consensus has emerged that a minimum one third representation, a critical mass, is considered the absolute minimum to achieve a credible women's influence in governance. Legislation to mandate a third of seats in the Indian parliament for women, for instance, a parliament in the near future to govern the most populous jurisdiction on Earth, has already passed through the upper house, 186 votes to one. In Australia the First Nations Congress has gone further by mandating equal representation of women and men throughout its organisation, while the ASX has flagged it will suspend corporations from trading which fail to include women equitably on their boards of directors, following on from fair inclusion laws for women in the finance industry, the first proactive response the US Congress made to the GFC.
All of this activity towards equality will culminate globally with governance by agreement between women's and men's legislatures, which will resolve conflict without standing armies as was always the way before the male privilege which is now being dismantled, became entrenched. And Anzac day will be seen by all for what it truly is, the remembrance of rank male stupidity.
The Dark Warrior, by Victor Churchill Dale
I am from the people which Australians forgot
Yet when they searched for their identity
I knew who I was
I gave respect to their law and religion
And yet they denied me of mine
For many years I worked alongside of them
But they failed to recognize me
I cried when they destroyed my land
But they never saw my tears
I played football and sport with them and they
Idolized me but after the game they forgot who I was
When invaders threatened this land I wore a slouch hat
And fought alongside of them
When the war was over and we held freedom in our hands
They denied me citizenship, they denied me war entitlements
I have never felt anger towards them
Only disappointment
In the passing of my life, my soul will rest with my people
And my children will grow with their children
Please let us not make the same mistake twice
Respect is the finest adornment of mankind
Surely then in my passing when you count my gifts
You will recognize respect
Proudly I was a warrior and protector of my people
I fought with an unbiased opinion for all Australians
I was an Aboriginal soldier for Australia
The poem, The Dark Warrior, is courtesy of the author, Victor Churchill Dale
Despicable lack of respect to our fallen warriors
by ray jackson
i had intended to say no more about this matter but the news article below most definitely requires both a rebuttal and a further word on the white-blindfold view of military history in this country.
the fact that it is necessary to state that aborigines, torres strait islanders and others expressing their right to remember the murders and massacres of the post-invasion history by the invaders and to our own fallen comrades over the previous 224 years, including our soldiers, sailors and air personnel, merely shows a lack of respect to our fallen warriors and those who have served in every war from the boer war on.
michael has stressed many times that the intention of our march is to be neither disruptive nor disrespectful to those who have fought and died in australia's wars. surely the organisers of the march would have the intelligence to know that if we wanted to do that we would march at the front that ethically and morally is our rightful place anyway on any measure of the circumstances.
but no, our people will march behind and that also is our right. sadly the organisers are blinded by their ignorant attitude to the aborigines,especially, and the torres strait islanders. there will be every courtesy shown to the main march and we expect the same from them and the act police on the day.
derek robson and neil james seem to wish that our march is some sought of protest that will, ergo therefore, become a major concern. it is not and will not. both derek and neil then pretend that we have no issues to be addressed by honouring those who gave their lives for this country of aboriginal nations and other world nations. they hide behind their white-blindfold views of recent history whereby the rsl denied access to those returning aborigines and torres strait islanders from their clubs and marches. they deny that the invasion war ever existed or indeed continues. we must be charitable here though and state that both of them have the right to be wrong but not when they argue from bias and discrimination.
derek tells us that he and raaf chaplain, royce thompson, were instrumental in assisting the local aborigines to set up 'their' memorial in the australian war memorial and that "it has worked absolutely brilliantly." this is merely an example of self-congratulation and a short memory, or at least a selective one.
should you go to the act and visit the war memorial then do not do as i did some years ago, ask where the aboriginal and torres strait islander section is you will get nothing but a blank stare along with the information that the main memorial does not have such a section nor any specific honouring to that end but if you go outside the war memorial, go around the back and climb a small hill you will find a stone that holds a plaque commemorating our fallen in many battles.
i present both memorials:
Aboriginal war memorial plaque, Canberra (ACT)
Images: www.awm.gov.au, Michael Southwell-Keely
There is an Aboriginal war memorial plaque in Canberra, ACT, set up not by the Australian government but by private citizens. It is not in the spotlight and not easy to find. You can find the Aboriginal war memorial plaque in the vicinity of the Australian War Memorial, a ten-minute walk away.
and why is this the case? well firstly the federal government were scared off by the rsl and others opposed to having our memorial in the main memorial because they, the main memorial, could not get involved in the arguments of involving the post-invasion wars. such exclusion is despicable and a slur on those who fought for this country. such disrespect is beyond understanding.
the extract below shines the full light of the racism our black diggers lived with daily on their return to apartheid australia. just another small chapter in the black and white history of australia.
When Aboriginal people returned from war they faced many challenges, some even many years after they had returned:
the two voxpops give no real understanding of the situations raised by michael and merely mouth the insult of assimilation and a lobotomy of our long and rich history over at least the last 60 000 years. sadly, this is the answer by the majority of those living in this country and yet some few still talk of reconciliation. as a wise elder said, "when were we ever conciliated"?
the redfern black diggers march information is below.
2012 - Redfern ANZAC Day March and Commemorative Service
Honouring our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Servicemen and Servicewomen
Wednesday 25th April 2012
Honour, Recognition, Respect
Lest We Forget
Redfern ANZAC Day Commemoration Program:
•
12:45pm: Redfern Park War Memorial wreath laying ceremony
•
1:00pm: Proceed to the Redfern Community Centre
•
1:30pm: Redfern Community Centre for commemorative ceremony and entertainment
•
4:30pm: Close
Artwork by D Golding
lest we forget
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
isja01@internode.on.net
(m) 0450 651 063
(p) 02 9318 0947
address 1303/200 pitt street waterloo 2017
www.isja.org.au
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people.
sovereignty treaty social justice
Understanding the Australian psyche
To understand the psyche of Australians and their politicians since the invasion of 1788 I highly recommend an article 'Australia Day' And 'Anzac Day' published at Countercurrents.org.
Coverage elsewhere
Brisbane Times: Aboriginal Anzac march plea
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/aboriginal-anzac-march-plea-201...
Canberra Times: Aborigines to march in peace on Anzac Day
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/aborigines-to-march-in-peace-on...
Koori Mail: Call to commemorate frontier wars
[scroll down page] http://www.koorimail.com/index.php
National Indigenous Radio Service: Give more recognition to Indigenous war heroes: Rights advocate
http://www.nirs.org.au/news/latest-news/7117-give-more-recognition-to-in...
newsTracker: ANZAC Day march labeled "disrespectful"
http://tracker.org.au/2012/04/anzac-day-marched-labeled-disrespectful/
Canberra Times: Aboriginal march not respectful: ACT Libs
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/aboriginal-march-not-respectful...
NZ Herald: Protest to recall Aboriginal dead
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10798442